Crossandra is an important commercial flower, mainly grown in India, tropical Africa and Madagascar. The flowers are commonly used for hair adornment. Though not fragrant, flowers are very popular because of its attractive bright colour, light weight and good keeping quality. These are used for making garland, either alone or in combination with jasmine flowers. Using Crossandra flowers in combination with jasmine is becoming increasingly popular in India, particularly in southern parts, because the jasmine flowers provide colour contrast and the desired fragrance.

1. S.BALASOUNDARI
2014026009

2. Taxonomy
B.N : Crossandra infundibuliformis
C.N : Fire cracker plant, Kanakambaram
Family: Acanthaceae
2n = 40
Origin: Indo - malaya region
Crossandra is derived from Greek word krossoi – fringed,
Andre – anthers i.e fringed anthers.

3. • The common name "firecracker flower" refers to the
seed pods, which are found after the flower has dried up,
and tend to "explode" when near high humidity or
rainfall.
• In Tamil - kanakambaram (கனகாம்பரம்), Malayalam
and Telugu and
• In Kannada - kanakambara.
• In Maharashtra and Goa it is known as aboli.
It is the state flower of Goa.

4. Dried seed pod

5. • There are two kinds of aboli,
• sadi or simple ones, these are a lighter shade of orange, and
they bloom.
• Ratan aboli is a darker shade of orange, and they remain buds.

6. • Tropical as well as subtropical regions
• South Asia, South America, South Africa and
Madagascar
• In India it is commercially cultivated in Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu and A.P
• Occupies 15 % of the area under traditional flowers in
Southern states
Distribution

7. Botany
Upright leaves
some what
toothed
dense spikes

8. Inflorescence is
hairy with
prominent bracts

9. Species and cultivars
The genus consists of around 40-50 spp. of tropical
plants with only a few cultivated spp. namely
C. undulaefolia
C. nilotica
 C. guineensis
 C. flava
C. pungens
C. undulaefolia is of commercial importance

10. C. undulaefolia
Short branching
perennial shrub
30-90cm
height

11. 5-12 cm, dark green,
lustrous
Flowers bright orange,
salmon to scarlet in color

12. Borne in large
densely packed
spikes.
spiny bract

13. C. guineensis
• free flowering
• about 30-60 cm
height
• bracts don’t bear spines
• pale lilac in colour
• It can be grown both in
sunny situation as well
as in partial shade.

14.  60 cm height and stem is semi
woody
 Bracts are hairy
C. nilotica
leaves are elliptic, dark
green and glossy

15. 5 lobes
long slender
corolla tube

16. C. pungens
Spikes are yellow in color
bracts broadly ovate, spiny

17. Leaves oblong pale green,
traced with pearly veins

18. C. flava
Unbranched shrub 15-20cm tall
with green and erect stem
 Leaves are glabrous , opposite,
ovate to lanceolate in shape and
dark green in color
Spike is four sided with yellow
green spiny bracts
Spikes are bright yellow

19. Crossandra Nile Queen

20. Blue Crossandra
Pseuderanthemum graciflorum,

21. WILD CROSSANDRA
Crossandra greenstockii

22. 1. Orange Crossandra - tetraploid (2n=40)
2. Delhi Crossandra - triploid (2n=30)
3. Lutea Yellow - tetraploid (2n=40)
4. Sebaculis Red - tetraploid (2n=40)
Cultivars

23. Production Technology
• Soil:
Fertile, red loamy soil with pH range of 6.0 - 7.5
is ideal
• Climate:
It requires a temperature of 30 - 35°C for
growth. It is a shade tolerant to some extent but
susceptible to low temperature and frost

24. Tetraploids: Propagated through seeds
Seed rate is 5kg/ha
Transplanted 60 DAS
Triploids: Propagated through Rooted cuttings of
10 - 15 cm length
41,700 cuttings/ha
Propagation
Propagated by means of:
• Seeds
• Rooted cuttings
• Tissue culture

26. Preparation of field
Plough the field thrice
FYM @ 25 t/ha
Ridges are formed 60 cm apart
Dip the roots of seedlings in Carbendazim (1 g/l of
water)
Plant the seedlings at 30 cm spacing
For seed production the spacing may be 60 x 60 cm

27. NPK 75 : 50 : 125 kg / ha – top dress – after 3 months
Repeat at half yearly interval for two years
Apply azospirillum 2 kg / ha – reduce N by 15 kg
Spraying ascorbic acid 1000 ppm increases the yield
FERTILISERS

28. For Delhi Crossandra
Basal - FYM 25 t / ha , gypsum 100 kg / ha , P 50 kg /
ha, k 100 kg / ha
Top Dressing – 30th day – Neem cake 250 kg / ha + N
40 kg / ha
90th day – NPK 40 : 20 : 60 kg / ha
Cont..,

29.  flowering starts in 2-3 months after planting
 bear flowers throughout the year with a drop during
the rainy season
 takes two days for complete opening and hence picking
on alternate days
FLOWERING

30. Flowers open in
sequence from the base
of the spike
flowers which are
diagonally opposite in the
spike open at the same time

31. Takes nearly 15-25 days to complete flowering on a spike
 picked flowers fade away in 36-48 hours
Packed in cloth or 200 gauge poly bag without ventilation and
stored in cool chamber

32. Plant protection
Pests
Nematode
• Phorate or Carbofuran 3G at 1 kg a.i./ha
• a week after planting
• six months after planting
Aphids
• Spray Dimethoate 30 EC 2 ml/lit.

33. Wilt
• Wilt is observed in patches.
• In the field the disease is
observed one month after
transplanting.
• Soil drenching with
Carbendazim 1 g/lit
Disease

34.  Flowers are to be picked early in the morning by pulling the
corolla out of the calyx
 Harvesting of flowers is to be done on alternate days
 The yield of flowers is about 5 t ha-1
Harvest and yield

35. • The breeding work done at TNAU resulted in two hybrids
• One resistant hybrid is developed from crossing between two
local types collected from Palani and Madhuramalai hills
• Flowers are large with very attractive with yellowish orange
petals
• Highly tolerant to nematodes
• Another hybrid was evolved by crossing the orange flowered cv.
with Sebaculis Red produces very attractive dark pink flowers
Varieties

36. Two hybrids were selected from IIHR Bangalore
Arka Ambara
Arka Kanaka
Recommended for commercial cultivation of
loose flowers and potted plants.
Cont..,

37. Arka Ambara
• Orange red bright
flowers
• Larger size
• Yield: 5.9t/acre/year

38. ArkaKanaka
• Orange big flowers
• Yield: 5.01 t /acre/year
• Bigger size flowers and
also pleasing colour

39. Shamrock crossandra

40. Orange marmalade
Yellow splash

41. sundanceTropic flame

42. • The flowers have no perfume but stay fresh for several days.
• The tiny flowers are often strung together into strands, sometimes
along with white jasmine flowers and therefore in great demand
for making garlands which are offered to temple deities or used to
adorn women’s hair.
• This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of
Garden Merit.
Importance

43. Thursday, November 16, 2000
• M.S. Laxmi Narayana Crossandra Association
• MANY HIGH yielding varieties of crossandra have been
developed by an innovative farmer, Mr. T. Vengadapathi of
Koodappakkam village in Pondicherry
• He was pursuing the crop improvement work using mutation
breeding techniques.
• He employed chemical mutagens and irradiation techniques to
generate the mutants from which he carefully selected the new
varieties.

44. Padma Shri in 2012 for his research on crossandra
tissue culture

45. He has named the varieties as
Kanakadhara
Vijaya Kanakambaram
Raj Kanakambaram
Subasu
Lakshmi
Neelambari
• He named the new variety as A P J Abdul Kalam.
• All these are high yielding varieties, and they do well in field
conditions.
• They produced attractive flowers of different shades of orange,
yellow and light pink, and the flowers fetched premium price in
the market, according to Mr. Vengadapathi.

46. • A K Singh; Flower Crops : Cultivation and Management; 2006;
kalyani publication,New Delhi
REFERENCE